THIS invention relates to a compaction roller.
Traditionally, soil compaction has been carried out either by means of round rollers with considerable mass or vibratory rollers. In relatively recent times, impact compaction as described in, for instance, the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 2,909,106, has been used in soil compaction activities. Impact compactors have been demonstrated to achieve high levels of soil compaction at some depth below the surface but in some cases they may not be really effective for compaction of layer works where a relatively shallow surface zone of the soil mass has to be compacted. Depending on the soil conditions the impact roller of an impact compactors may have a tendency merely to disturb the surface layer rather than compact it effectively.
The impact roller of a conventional impact compactor may also have a tendency to create localised depressions in the soil surface, requiring subsequent smoothing operations them. They may also generate shock loads both on the towing tractor and on the soil mass and can have a relatively low operating speed.